A small but growing percentage of real estate is being sold at auction. The advantage of an auction for a seller is that the property will definitely be sold quickly, although usually at a lower price. So auctions often attract sellers who simply want to unload a property, such as a lender that has foreclosed on it, or an executor whose heirs want cash and not real estate.

Auctions often attract buyers who are looking for a deal – although auctioned properties are usually sold “as is” with no guarantees, so unless you’ve done careful homework and had everything inspected thoroughly, the property might not be as good a deal as you first thought.

Because auctions are unusual and require special contracts and agreements, a seller will definitely want to work with an attorney as well as an auctioneer. [Read more...]

The Americans With Disabilities Act was passed 20 years ago and required retail and other commercial business owners to renovate their properties to make them accessible to the disabled. For the first time since then, the U.S. government has comprehensively revised the requirements. The new requirements will go into effect on March 15, 2012.

The changes include new rules for the following: van-accessible parking, maximum height and “reach ranges” for certain objects, service animals, communication devices for the hearing-impaired, seating requirements in theaters and other assembly areas (including access to stages), pool access, hotel reservations, wheelchair accessibility for employees, the use of mobility devices other than wheelchairs (such as Segways), and more. [Read more...]

Karen George had a lovely apartment on New York’s Upper West Side, except for one thing – her downstairs neighbor, the pop star Madonna.

According to George, Madonna had people over to her apartment for an hour and a half to three hours every day to conduct dance training and exercise routines. During this time, Madonna played loud music. According to George, the music was “deafening” and caused her walls and floors to shake. She says she often had to leave the apartment because of the noise, and was unable to entertain guests.

George repeatedly complained to Madonna and to the landlord, but she says the loud music continued for two years, until Madonna finally built a dance studio in one of her other New York City properties to use instead. [Read more...]

Home appraisers are the unofficial umpires of residential real estate sales, deciding whether offering prices are fair or foul. But much more often than in the past, they’re striking out deals and sending buyers and sellers back to the dugout.

Each month, between 10 and 20 percent of real estate agents are seeing accepted offers to buy a home founder or collapse as a result of appraisals that came back too low, according to recent surveys by the National Association of Realtors.

Low appraisals hurt both buyers and sellers. When an appraisal comes back lower than expected, buyers usually can’t qualify for as large a mortgage. That means they have to put up a larger down payment to buy the house – something they often can’t do. As a result, the sale might fall through, or the seller will have to lower the price in order to salvage the deal. [Read more...]